


happy holidays, harmon family

by lookngforalaska



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Murder House
Genre: Christmas, Cute, F/M, Soft!!!!, Teen Romance, christmas harmon, christmas violate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 18:39:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17147006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookngforalaska/pseuds/lookngforalaska
Summary: "Christmas on the other hand was usually the Harmons, which also extended to Tate and sometimes Travis and Larry’s two girls. Hayden would also try to saunter by at unexpected times. Ben would cut the tree, and Moira and Vivien would prepare and cook food. Of course they didn’t have to, but it was a tradition, now."christmas was the only happy time at the murder house.





	happy holidays, harmon family

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! a little xmas violate/harmon ramble. hope you enjoy!!!

Violet Harmon awoke to the smell of fresh baking coming up from the kitchen and wafting into her bedroom. Christmas was an… interesting time for the ghosts in the house. It was different to Thanksgiving, which consisted of a lot of fighting, which was to be expected when you had 20+ spirits gathered.

Christmas on the other hand was usually the Harmons, which also extended to Tate and sometimes Travis and Larry’s two girls. Hayden would also try to saunter by at unexpected times. Ben would cut the tree, and Moira and Vivien would prepare and cook food. Of course they didn’t have to, but it was a tradition, now. Violet would sometimes grumpily help. Billie Dean would bring ingredients and sometimes little gifts. She always came a few days early, and Tate would always try and make sure to get Violet something he knew she’d love. Sometimes he didn’t bother though, and fashioned something with fabrics and knick-knacks from the attic, which Violet secretly loved better. Last year, it was a pack of fancy black cigarettes and a box of books from this antique store she loved to go to in the Hills.  
Violet was reminiscing about old Christmases as she could hear a faint ring of ornaments clicking together and the sound of a scratchy Christmas playlist being played on a record player downstairs. 

“Happy Holidays, Violet.” Moira was preparing a delicious winter-themed breakfast for them all in the kitchen. It smelled like warm apple cider and cinnamon sticks. Violet was looking around the room absent-mindedly and swiping her fingers across any clean surface before smiling at Moira. “There are some baked goods in the oven, if you would like to help.” Violet reached down towards the oven door when she heard a voice behind her. 

“I’ll help with that.” she looked over at Tate who had wandered into the kitchen and scoffed. “When do you ever help with baking?” she folded her arms and guarded the oven. “When there’s eating involved.” He grinned at the girl and gently pulled her arms away from her chest and moved her to the side of the oven. Moira looked frantic. “Please, Violet, get your mother. Take him with you.” The maid swatted the teenage pair out of the kitchen and they found themselves in the living room, which was lit up in red, green and white lights strung around the edges of the dark walls. Violet heard Ben and Vivien humming along to Little Drummer Boy and saw them finishing off the final decorations for the tree that Ben had cut the day before. “Moira wants help with the baking.” Violet’s voice was jarring; unsettling the Christmas mood in the room. Vivien sighed and Ben laughed and pulled his wife closer to him. They looked so happy. It was the only day of the year that they really, truly were. “It’s okay. Go do some baking. I’ve almost finished. Unless Vi and Tate want to help?” by the time Ben had said Violet’s name, the couple had run outside to hide from their responsibilities. 

“I like Christmas here.” Violet had gone back inside a while later to get a box of the cookies Moira had made and a mug of hot cocoa for them to share and came back out to sit on the wall with Tate. “How many Christmases have you had in this house?” Violet asked, spinning her finger around the rim of the warm mug while Tate chewed on a cookie. “I meant,” he said between bites. “With you. Your family.” Violet gently smiled and rubbed crumbs off of his face. “Me too,” Violet sipped the warm drink, her eyes peering over the rim to look at Tate. He looked very child-like under the Christmas lights the family had hung up around the doorway and porch. He looked like an angel, like he belonged in a tableau at the local church. “Christmas was the worst holiday,” she continued while Tate was staring at her. “Mom was always stressed, and shouting at Dad. Dad was always too busy trying to calm Mom down that they never really had time for me. I ended up not caring, I ended up liking it. It was like Christmas was just my holiday. But it sucked, you know?” Violet was talking with her hands and ended up accidentally throwing some of the cocoa onto the ground in the process. Tate nodded and laughed, just before they heard the harsh click of heels on the path. Violet whipped her head around to face the person. “Hi Billie,” she smiled at the kind faced medium who had stopped in front of them. Tate waved at her. “Hi Tate, Hi Violet.” “Presents?” Violet nodded her head at the box that Billie was now carrying into the house, while they followed. “A couple,” she looked awkwardly at the girl. Violet decided now was a good idea to check on Vivien and Moira in the kitchen, and left Tate and Billie alone. 

“Are these what you wanted for Violet?” Billie and Tate had moved into the lounge. He pulled out of the box two packs of cigarettes, a new lighter, a couple of books, art supplies, and a new deck of cards. He grinned. “Perfect.” He took the box upstairs, and put it with the other little gifts he had gotten her from around the house, or that were already in his possession. Usually, the family didn’t give presents until the evening, after dinner. “Hiding things for Violet?” Vivien had peeked into the bedroom and was standing in the doorway, arms folded and beads of sweat on her forehead from the heat of the kitchen. Tate got up from the floor and nodded, he didn’t talk with Mrs. Harmon much. “Yeah,” he mumbled. She smiled at the boy. “She likes you. She talks about you a lot. She reads the books you got her. Cherish that.” She was half being stern and half being kind. Tate nodded, not knowing what to do next. “Come on,” “let’s help with more last minute things.” They both wandered downstairs in search for stuff to do.

Violet was in the kitchen, eating cookies and drinking more hot chocolate, staring around at the decorations. She put a lit cigarette in the ash tray in front of her. Tate sat down in the chair diagonal from her and leant over to kiss her. She smiled as they both leaned back. Violet tapped her fingers on the table. “Got your gifts ready?” she smiled over at him. He nodded nervously, he hoped she liked the presents he got. “The dinner is almost ready.” Moira had appeared in the doorway, with Vivien moving behind her, getting the table set up. “Violet, would you please help your father in there?” Vivien was pointing in the kitchen, where there was lots of smoke, plates everywhere and random assortments of cutlery and glassware. Violet stubbed her cigarette out properly into the empty ashtray and entered the kitchen, where her dad was frantic. “I hate this bit.” He was swatting some excess smoke around the oven with a dish cloth. Tate had gone over to the music deck to put on a playlist. 

Violet, Moira, Ben and Vivien were all coming out of the kitchen with great arrays of delicious, festive food. Violet had insisted on having only vegetarian foods one year, so Moira always made a note and made extra vegetarian stuff. They put the turkey in the middle of the table, with all the side dishes and bowls and plates surrounding it. “Sorry I’m late,” Travis and Larry’s girls appeared from the basement door. He smiled and sat down. Ben was at the head of the table, with Vivien and Violet to either side of him. Moira sat next to Vivien and Tate sat next to Violet. Travis then sat next to Moira. The girls sat next to Tate. He and Violet smiled at them both as they sat down. “Looks good this year.” Travis continued, nodding at Moira. She smiled. “It really does.” Vivien chimed in. Tate smiled at Violet, and rested his hand on hers on the table. Everything was perfect. The music player was softly playing Little Drummer Boy. It was like a scene in a movie. The perfect family laughing, breaking Christmas crackers together.

“Everyone ready for gifts?” they had all moved into the living room after dinner. Vivien, Ben, Travis and Tate were wearing paper Christmas hats. Tate’s was torn in the front of his as Violet was yanking it off of his head. Gifts to Vivien were first. Ben gave her an emerald ring she had been looking at when they went out on Halloween. He also got her classical records for their record player and cello music sheets, as she’d taken it up again. It was so ethereal to be able to walk around the empty house and just be able to hear the dark musical tones of Viv’s cello. She smiled as she put the ring on her right ring finger and she looked through the classical records. “For you, Vivien.” Moira had collected her gift for Viv from under the tree. She unwrapped lots of homeware items; porcelain cups, dishes and plates, with intricate patterns. She beamed at her friend. “They’re wonderful, Moira. Thank you.” She grasped the maid’s hand. “These are from me and Tate.” Violet smiled at her mom and gave her a couple of neatly wrapped gifts. “Great wrapping, Vi.” Ben smiled at his daughter. She glanced over to Tate who was sitting next to her, his hand resting on her knee. “Actually, Tate did them.” She beamed proudly at him. Vivien ripped off the wrapping and gasped. The couple had given her Arts Through the Ages books; ones on Picasso, Michelangelo, a couple on Renaissance art and Victorian. “I thought we could do art together. Paint the walls, or a portrait or something.” Violet offered. Vivien smiled at her daughter. Violet wasn’t usually very into the gift giving. “I love them. Thank you, Vi. And thank you, Tate.” She smiled at the pair as she bent down from her chair to hug Violet, and to pat Tate’s knee. 

“Violet’s turn!” Ben shouted after unwrapping his last gift. “From us.” Vivien handed Violet a big square gift, rapped in shiny gold wrapping with a small red bow, with a tag that said “To Vi, Merry Christmas. Mom + Dad” She tore the corners. “A sketchbook? And a journal?” Violet grinned at her parents. “For your art. Or writing. Or anything.” Vivien beamed at her daughter.

“Are these all for me?” Violet looked at Tate as he dropped 5 neatly wrapped presents in her lap. He nodded. “I thought of all these things to get you and, I couldn’t narrow it down to two. I had to get them all.” He was shy all of a sudden, worried she won’t like the things he picked out. She opened the first one: a large box. She opened it to find watercolors, pencils, pens and a foldable easel. She looked up at the boy, who was staring at her opening the gifts, biting his nail. “So you can paint and hang stuff on the walls. I know you lost some of your things in the move out here.” He gave a small smile at her. “I love them, thank you. I can’t wait to paint.” She patted Tate’s hand as she opened the next gift, a smaller but thicker box. Inside, were three packs of cigarettes and a plain black lighter. Vivien rolled her eyes as she saw what the next gift was. Violet fingered the plastic gold lining around the white packages. “Thanks, a lot. I needed more.” Tate smiled at her again, but she looked to her mom to show her the boxes, even though she knew Viv didn’t like her smoking. “At least go outside.” She’d always sigh. She smiled a small smile this time, and pointed to the lighter. “You could paint it.”

 

The next gift Violet could already guess: a t-shirt or sweater of some kind. She opened it and it was a sweater: his favorite. It was brown, a chocolate brown, with orange and brown horizontal stripes. It was soft, too. And slightly too big for Tate. It would always get caught over his hands whenever he was doing something and he always had to roll the sleeves up. Violet smiled so widely at this gift; she knew what this meant if he’d given her his favorite sweater. She liked it more than the art supplies, even the cigarettes, which were her signature. She liked the sweater because it was his. She shrugged the cardigan off that she was wearing and pulled the sweater over her dress. She stood up and laughed. It came mid-thigh and it almost drowned her small frame. “I love it.” She wrapped the long sleeves around her waist, and then hugged Tate. “There were two extra gifts in that package.” Tate said in Violet’s ear as they were still hugging. She went to the torn wrapping paper and saw a small necklace box. In it, was a small green pendant on a gold chain. Next to it in the box, was a thin silver ring with a blue pendant. Violet gasped as she showed her mom. Moira cooed. “I found them in the attic. Well, the necklace was mine. I found the ring in the attic. I think it was Nora’s.” he shrugged nonchalantly, like it was nothing. “These gifts are… amazing, Tate.” Violet opened the last of her gifts: three books that she was always asking for from the antique store she loved. She held them to her chest so close.  
Violet gave Tate his presents. He got a first edition Stephen King book, two Sonic Youth and Nirvana records, and a home-made deck of cards. “You drew these?” Tate shouted, as he tipped some of the cards out of the box to look at them. She nodded, as he looked through all the hand drawn Queens and Jacks and diamonds. “A gift for you both.” Moira came out with a large hand-made blanket. “Moira, that’s too kind.” Vivien gasped as Violet wrapped the ice blue blanket around her and Tate. She grasped his hand tightly, and reassuringly. “I made eggnog, too.” Moira passed around five warm mugs. “This has been the best Christmas.” Tate suddenly said after the family had been quietly sipping their drinks. Violet nodded. “Merry Christmas, my wonderful family.” Vivien smiled around the room. 

“Merry Christmas, mom.” replied Violet.


End file.
